Karnataka's integrated criminal justice system still has miles to go

Centre has set a March 2017 deadline for all states to integrate data base of police, prisons, courts, forensics, prosecution and other deptsUmesh Yadav | ET Bureau | June 20, 2016, 08:50 IST

With less than a year left to have it up and running, the Karnataka government is dragging its feet to digitise data for the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS). The ICJS is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India project.

The Centre had set a March 2017 deadline for all states to integrate the database of police, prisons, courts, forensics, prosecution and other departments. The task at hand is to digitise records of the past ten years and update day-to-day statistics.

The ICJS cuts right at the heart of everything that is perceived to be wrong with the country's legal system. Recently, for instance, the city police had to spend ten days -including a visit to Bihar -to ascertain the identities of 15 smugglers, who denied any wrongdoing. The police finally found that they were part of an interstate gang. If the ICJS was in place, identifying suspects would not require days on end.

The state home department will have much to answer for considering the slow pace of work on the project.

"We have started the process of forming a committee to share crime and criminal-related data with the police, prosecution, courts, prisons and forensics leading to ICJS. Later, tenders will be floated for hardware, software and manpower to monitor the project's implementation," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Subhash Chandra said. "We've instructed departments to upload their data and complete the process soon."

Each department claims bragging rights for individual projects.

The Police Department uses the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) to maintain data. "(ICJS) won't work unless other departments have their data up. It may take another two to three years for its implementation as most of the departments are yet to start digitising their records," SP (Police Computer Wing) Shivamurthy said.

Some of the departments which turn the wheels of the criminal justice system are slower than the others.

The Prisons Department plans to provide Aadhaar numbers for all prisoners and hopes to collect data of all inmates in the process. "Right now, we're focusing on prison reforms. Once the committee is set up, we'll start the process. It requires staff and technology equipment," DGP (Prisons) HN Satyanarayana Rao said.

An official from the Karnataka High Court's Central Project Coordination said the court's website is the best in the country as far as uploading daily case details and cause lists is concerned. "We are ready with all inputs that need to be linked to the website."